World War One studio photography is dominated by shots of male soldiers posing in European studios in hopes of documenting their wartime experiences for hometown family and friends to enjoy. Little did they know that historians in 2014 would be researching their names, hometowns, photos and military rosters to help paint a picture of the American experience during WWI. One of my favorite research topics is the wartime culture of US nurses while stationed overseas in 1918 and 1919. In this case, I’ve done an extensive series of searches in hopes of tracking down the WWI nurse posed in the photo. I hope you enjoy the research!
Ella (Kettels) Voged in 1918
Ella Kettels of Clinton, Iowa
Miss Ella Kettels (mispelled on the photo) eventually went on to marry at the age of 35 to a man named Theodore Voged. He is listed as a janitor in the 1929 city directory for Clinton, Iowa. The couple lived at 576 1st Ave. in Clinton, IA. I’ve identified the house they lived in and have posted it below:
576 1st Ave. in Clinton, IA.
Her wartime experience is included in her1965 obituary:
“Mrs, Ella Voged, 80, of Clinton, saw the grim side of World War I. She went to France as a Red Cross nurse but soon found herself enrolled as an Army nurse. She had been graduated from nursing school at a Clinton hospital in 1910. Mrs. Voged served as a nurse in a hospital near Paris to which American wounded came in a steady stream from the big front-line battles of that war. . “Sometimes we thought this boy would be all right and they would be gone in the morning,” she recalled. “This was long before the day of antibiotics. They would develop infections in their wounds.”
Although we may never know the full extent of Ella’s wartime hardships, we do know that she will be immortalized on the world wide web as a subject of potential research in the future.
Portraits of War 
Thank you for the photo of Aunt Ella. I have been researching my mother and two of her friends who graduated the same nursing school as Ella, but in 1948 as cadets. It wasn’t until recently that i became aware of Ella’s WWI service. Uncles Ted and Emil were both in France during the war. It is my understanding that that Ted and Ella met at the VFW after the war, but that is only from my mother’s memory. They lost one child in infancy. Aunt Ella was also the inspiration for another niece that graduated from Ravenswood Nursing School in Chicago in 1928.
I plan to contact the local VFW and library to determine if they have any of her correspondence.